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Post by rberman on Oct 25, 2019 7:00:11 GMT -5
JLA #167 “The League That Defeated Itself” (June 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: The villains, still occupying the bodies of JLAers, are squabbling among themselves on the satellite. The heroes-in-villain-bodies are locked away in a stasis cell in the satellite basement. Green Lantern-in-Professor-Zoom busts them out. They reactivate Red Tornado, who was defeated by the villains last issue. Duh! Awakening to find himself surrounded by apparent villains, obviously he attacks and must be put down again. Now the heroes get clever. GL-in-Zoom visits the criminal known as Hijack in prison and tricks him into revealing the Secret Society’s base of operations. But the villains-in-JLA-bodies have brought the rest of the JLA here, and the heroes-in-villain-bodies are brought down by a single explosive arrow from Green Arrow. Blockbuster in particular ought to be tougher than that, but whatever. The real heroes are defeated. But Green Arrow feels some of his teammates are acting fishy. Also, Zatanna-in-Star-Sapphire is still on the loose, because the villains have foolishly failed to notice who’s present and who’s absent among their captives. Wouldn’t Star-Sapphire-in-Zatanna be attentive to that? There’s also a one page teaser halfway through in, which a photographer visits a mysterious figure in a lighthouse. This sets up a story a couple of issues away still. I don’t recall this ever happening in JLA before, but Chris Claremont was doing it all the time in X-Men of this era. Lettercol: The editor pleads for readers to write in and say whether they like the addition of Zatanna, and whether she should go back to her old costume. My Two Cents: I feel like this was a really good issue. I’m also trying to figure out how much of that appreciation is nostalgia, because this is one of the few 1970s JLA issues that I read in the early 1980s. I don’t think it’s just that, though. Can anyone here give me a reality check? Is this story better than the others before it? Conway really does a good job with character and plotting on this one. Granted, he doesn’t have a lot of space to work with, since there are only 17 pages, and the first 5 are a recap of last issue. Back in the Englehart days, this could have been a “done in one” 35 pager rather than a three part story. A reader in a later lettercol will point out that although GL-in-Zoom acts as if super-speed is a new experience for him, in fact GL and The Flash switched powers in Green Lantern #43 (Gardner Fox, 1966). Gotcha!
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Post by badwolf on Oct 25, 2019 11:23:56 GMT -5
JLA #167 “The League That Defeated Itself” (June 1979)My Two Cents: I feel like this was a really good issue. I’m also trying to figure out how much of that appreciation is nostalgia, because this is one of the few 1970s JLA issues that I read in the early 1980s. I don’t think it’s just that, though. Can anyone here give me a reality check? Is this story better than the others before it? I'm in the same boat as you. I wasn't much of a DC reader then but I had this and the next two issues (still do) and I love them. I'm always partial to villain teams and often got comics because they featured one.
The only issue before this that I have is the Siren issue, and I got that when I was older.
Still, from your reviews here I do feel like they start to get better here. A bit more modern, perhaps (for DC)? There's some more great stuff coming up.
GA's arrows seem to always be able to do whatever they need to to move the plot to the next phase. I like how he was the one to figure out that some of his friends weren't themselves, though.
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Post by rberman on Oct 26, 2019 7:33:46 GMT -5
JLA #168 “The Last Great Switcheroo!” (July 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: The un-possessed JLAers are getting progressively more suspicious, especially when "Green Lantern" imprisons the “villains” in a giant diamond which “Superman” lobs on a trajectory into the sun. “Superman” can hear Green Arrow murmuring against him. The villains plan to steal ancient alien artifacts stored at a museum in Mexico City. They take the rest of the JLA along and pretend to guard the museum. But the plan goes awry when Professor-Zoom-in-Green-Lantern tries to take liberties with Black Canary. She kayos him and sounds an alarm to her friends. Zatanna-in-Star-Sapphire convinces Red Tornado of what’s really going on. He flies into space, retrieves the heroes-in-villain-bodies, and explains the situation to the other heroes. Zatanna-in-Star-Sapphire uses the mystic artifacts to switch minds back to their proper bodies, and the villains are meekly led away to jail. The plot point about their impending deaths (due to separation from their astral projections) is utterly forgotten. In part two of the teaser started last issue, Ultraa is freed from imprisonment in a stasis cube much like the one that held the heroes last issue in the JLA basement. My Two Cents: I did read this one back forty years ago, but it’s definitely not as good as part two was. Still, points for ambition, and the overall story is good.
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Post by badwolf on Oct 26, 2019 15:47:05 GMT -5
Do Green Lantern constructs remain after the ring has lost battery (or GL stops thinking about them)? If so, major flaw in the imprisonment plan. (The villains wouldn't have cared I guess, but probably one of the normal Leaguers would have known.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 26, 2019 17:53:34 GMT -5
Do Green Lantern constructs remain after the ring has lost battery (or GL stops thinking about them)? If so, major flaw in the imprisonment plan. (The villains wouldn't have cared I guess, but probably one of the normal Leaguers would have known. My reading has always been that they existed only as long as the individual Lantern willed it to do so and disappeared, when they changed focus. I can't cite specifics; but, I believe GL has been knocked out by something outside, which released anything created with the ring. However, these things were often fluid, according to story needs.
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Post by badwolf on Oct 26, 2019 18:26:43 GMT -5
There's a bit in the previous issue that I don't really understand. GL (in Zoom's body) complains about having an in-born superpower. He says it stinks! Now he might not love the power he was given but I'd think not having to don gear to use it would be convenient. Does anyone know why he says it?
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Post by rberman on Oct 27, 2019 5:35:18 GMT -5
There's a bit in the previous issue that I don't really understand. GL (in Zoom's body) complains about having an in-born superpower. He says it stinks! Now he might not love the power he was given but I'd think not having to don gear to use it would be convenient. Does anyone know why he says it? I interpreted that as a general complaint against his current circumstance, i.e. mind-swapped with a villain and imprisoned in the JLA basement.
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Post by rberman on Oct 27, 2019 5:38:14 GMT -5
JLA #169 “The Doomsday Decision” (August 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: Ultraa sues the JLA for wrongful imprisonment. They’re not legally entitled to lock anyone away anywhere, notes his lawyer. That’s probably true. But it seems that the lawyer Sloane is just using Ultraa as his pawn. Batman is stuck on monitor duty in the JLA satellite. He notes that the seas are dropping, and the oxygen level in the atmosphere is increasing to a level that causes fires to burn dangerously quickly. Superman investigates why the oceans are dropping rapidly and doesn’t do too well against one of these alien forms. We see Sloane in a private moment. He’s not even human; he’s some sort of amalgam of many tiny organisms, fomenting unrest among men as a prelude to invasion. Later, Ultraa figures this out and plots his next move to foil the aliens. My Two Cents: The seed of this story is valid enough. Who gives the JLA authority to imprison anyone anywhere? They have stasis cubes up on their satellite, which I suppose are beyond national jurisdictions. What if the Demons Three got a lawyer and sued for their freedom? Alan Moore repeated the terrorist danger of oxygen being too high in 1984 in Swamp Thing #23, with The Floronic Man as the culprit.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 27, 2019 12:00:20 GMT -5
They always miss the issue of breathing purer oxygen. Air is a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen (and other elements) and the more oxygen is present, the more it affects how the lungs process air and can lead to hyperoxia, which can damage cell tissue.
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Post by tarkintino on Oct 27, 2019 16:43:14 GMT -5
JLA #169 “The Doomsday Decision” (August 1979) Conway's trip into superhero legality was a very important moment in comic book history. Up to this point, the most significant challenges to superheroes acting as agents not deputized to carry out the law were the usual (Spider-Man called a criminal / vigilante) and a plot in 70s The Fantastic Four, but more often than not, superheroes acted with no authority, or specifically, anyone reminding them that they have no true legal power over people or property. For all of the often overblown praise of originality a story like Civil War received, its origins could be found in stories like this one, and just a few years later in What if #43 ( "What If Captain America Were Not Revived Until Today?" from April of 1984). This plot element alone elevates it above many JLA stories of the period, as there mere question of superhero authority had to be addressed at DC--by any character.
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Post by badwolf on Oct 27, 2019 17:14:40 GMT -5
The image of Sloane on the cover kinda freaked me out as a kid. It looks way more disturbing than it does inside, even though the artists are the same.
For years I thought that the storytellers were cheating when they had GL "create" Superman so that it looked like he was still there. It wasn't until fairly recently I found out that he could create constructs of any color if he wanted. (Still doesn't make much sense to me though, why have colors at all?)
I'm a little dubious of Barry's repair job on the glass window...
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Post by rberman on Oct 28, 2019 6:52:04 GMT -5
JLA #170 “While a World Lies Burning” (September 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: When the court re-convenes, Ultraa attacks Sloane. The JLA initially try to stop him, but soon he reveals Sloane to be a literal slime ball. As the JLA fight natural disasters around the world, Wonder Woman fishes Superman out of the ocean from where he fell last issue. He murmurs that the falling seas and the rising oxygen level are connected; the water is being broken into Hydrogen and Oxygen; the hydrogen is being stolen and the oxygen left behind. Batman defeats the aliens off-panel; we learn about it through Red Tornado’s exposition, which is really lame. Lettercol: Reader Carol A. Strickland pans Zatanna’s new body-stocking-with-boob-window. “Maybe Clea would want an outfit like this, but Zatanna? Never!” My Two Cents: Big points given for a reasonable scientific premise underlying this issue. Big negative points for the narrative collapsing. There’s no way the original intent was for Batman’s climactic action to occur off-page. Dunno what went wrong in the production process, but it must have been majorly bad. Ultraa suffers a severe wound off-panel also.
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Post by dbutler69 on Oct 28, 2019 10:12:41 GMT -5
My Two Cents: I feel like this was a really good issue. I’m also trying to figure out how much of that appreciation is nostalgia, because this is one of the few 1970s JLA issues that I read in the early 1980s. I don’t think it’s just that, though. Can anyone here give me a reality check? Is this story better than the others before it? Conway really does a good job with character and plotting on this one. Granted, he doesn’t have a lot of space to work with, since there are only 17 pages, and the first 5 are a recap of last issue. Back in the Englehart days, this could have been a “done in one” 35 pager rather than a three part story. While I enjoy the issues preceding this (no doubt nostalgia plays a role) I really do think that both #166 and 167 are both a cut above all of the previous Conway issues. These are probably my favorite Conway issues which didn't involve a JSA team-up, among the entirety of the Conway run, in fact. Then again, I also enjoy Dick Dillon's JLA art, so what do I know? Oh, and one thing that I really dislike about 70's comics (and there aren't many things I dislike about 70's comics!) is the fact that most of them are 17 pages. Most seem to have a rushed ending, or have a story stretched out into two issues.
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Post by tarkintino on Oct 28, 2019 11:53:38 GMT -5
About Conway's run: for me, JLA is not really a nostalgia title; either it was good or it wasn't, and in Conway's case, he proved he was one of the best writers of the 70s, no matter the publisher. He was never a "flight of fancy" writer (in my estimation) and that made his JLA seem more adult and seasoned than many of the creative runs that came before his own. As far as team books of the Silver/Bronze age go, it was not on the level of the incredible Thomas run on The Avengers, but Conway treated the characters--more often than not--like real individuals with real feelings, and that does not age as the years pass..
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Post by rberman on Oct 29, 2019 5:38:01 GMT -5
JLA #171 “The Murderer Among Us: Crisis Above Earth One!” (October 1979)Creative Team: Written by Gerry Conway. Art by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. The Story: Time for the annual JLA/JSA team-up! JSA member Mister Terrific shows up for the first time since issue #102, though a footnote claims it’s been since #38. He wants help tracking down his old foe the Spirit King, and he warns that one JLA/JSA member is a traitor. The two teams chat for several pages. Batman-1 is bummed to hear of the death of Batman-2. Kinda makes you think! Suddenly, a massive hole is blown in the side of the satellite, resulting in decompression. As Superman repairs the damage, he finds Mister Terrific’s strangled corpse floating outside the station. Time for some sleuthing. Zatanna tries a spell on a piece of debris but ends up comatose. Whodunnit? My Two Cents: A JLA/JSA reunion that involves neither some third team, nor a contrived “splitting up into squads” story! Glory be! Conway’s JLA is A-OK with me. A dozen people locked in one room; it’s an oldie but a goodie. Conway is really leaning into characterization, which I like, but with only 17 pages to play with, there’s not a lot of space left over for plot, so all these stories become two parters by default. There’s some filler, as when the heroes spend multiple pages patching the hull. Also, did he know that this issue had a character named “Sloane” when he named the villain of the two previous issues “Sloane” also? It’s an unnecessary bit of confusion/duplication.
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